


Tenjou Utena and the Glasses of RPG

by chthonicfantasyyy



Series: Revolutionary Girl Utena [2]
Category: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: F/F, Possibly OOC, RPG elements, after the end so mild spoilers i guess, also only anthy remembers the black rose arc in this, anthy is utenas sugar mom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-13
Updated: 2017-11-13
Packaged: 2019-02-01 21:21:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12713199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chthonicfantasyyy/pseuds/chthonicfantasyyy
Summary: Utena is curious about Anthy's witch stuff. Anthy indulges her. Another really long set up for a mediocre joke.





	Tenjou Utena and the Glasses of RPG

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in the same universe as the last piece I wrote, so go read that if you haven't got a chance. /shameless self promotion. 
> 
> My inspiration was the theory that Anthy removes her glasses at the end because they represent how Akio wants her to see the world, and seeing as how her job is to pick at people's weaknesses until they go to the dueling arena, so I took that to its logical conclusion.
> 
> Also based on that scene in the OP where the two of them wear armor and ride on flying horses.
> 
> ...
> 
> Hey, Be-papas? What the fuck?

Several things happened after Utena and Anthy left Ohtori Academy.

Utena Akio could live without. The Rose Bride however, was a necessary component in his whole perpetual motion machine scam and without her to project onto the Student Council didn’t have any shining things to lust after. No shining things meant the Student Council cottoned-on to just what was going on around there and they too managed to graduate from Ohtori Academy. With no Duelists, there was no one to idealize being Akio’s pawn, so the other students graduated as well as if they were normal high school students.

To put it simply, Ohtori Academy imploded, both metaphorically and literally with Akio at the center of it all.

It was Anthy’s biggest accomplishment, if she does say so herself, and every now and then she would take a break from her well-off little business, the Lily Cafe, because we’ve had quite enough of roses here, and revisit the site (only she knew where to find it after all) and bring back whatever relics she found. She was still practicing her magic after all and those artifacts were quite potent indeed.

Utena knew this, and she knew that Anthy kept those artifacts in the “extra linen closet” in their little cottage in the suburbs by Utena’s college.

The extra linen closet that Utena was very much not allowed in, at least not when Anthy was in the house.

Which she was not.

Utena checks the driveway one last time to make sure it’s empty, then casually makes her way into the hallway where her destination lies.

No Anthy.

She turns the knob and opens the door a crack. The light isn’t on and she can barely see a thing, but the overpowering scent of roses rushes at her and out into the hall.

No Anthy.

It takes Utena a second to register the smell after having purged it so thoroughly from her mind. She wasn’t getting involved in that business again, was she?

“Himemiya…” Utena mutters, then claps a hand over her mouth and glances over her shoulder.

No Anthy.

On a whim, Utena snakes her arm in and feels along the wall until she finds the familiar panel of a light switch. Bingo. “Extra linen closet”, her ass. 

Utena gets cocky and opens the door some more. She’d smartened up a little since Ohtori, was a little more observant, so she knew Anthy never actually did any ritual for her magic. She wanted things to happen and they just sort of did. She wanted the room to be here so it was. She wanted things to change and they did.

This room contained all those things. It was already small, made smaller by the dark wood bookshelves lining the walls. On those bookshelves are things--not too many, there are still some open spaces here and there--but things nonetheless. Shreds of an old dress, roses, a headlight, roses, a broken stopwatch, roses, a sword hilt, roses, a brick from an old castle, rose petals, a bent leg from a desk, roses.

Utena...knows she should feel something from seeing all these objects here together, her stomach doesn’t churn from the memories like it should, and that makes her sick in turn.

And yet. She feels no reason to feel this way. Instead of feeling restless and angry like she was in the hospital she feels...free, refreshed.

Purified.

“Utena.”

She yelps, and after a moment of limb flailing settles into one of the hand-to-hand combat poses she learned from the class Nanami made all the girls take. 

Yes, all of them. 

You see, Utena smartened up a little since Ohtori, was a little more observant, but not enough to understand that Anthy is everywhere, or that sometime during her investigation she walked all the way into the linen closet and left the door open.

Anthy looks like she couldn’t give less of a fuck. She just got in it seems, her shoes are off but her purse is still slung over her shoulder, with Chu-Chu still snoozing in it. She’s leaning--

No. That’s not true. Anthy Himemiya does not “lean”, but she gives off the impression of leaning against the doorframe as she uses a little cloth to shine a pair of glasses.

Wait a minute.

Utena’s posture relaxes as a thought coalesces in her mind.

“Himemiya?”

“Mm.”

“You need glasses to see, right?”

Anthy starts to polish her old glasses extra hard, her face still impassive.

“You think I’ve been stumbling around blind for the past few eo...years, Utena-sama?”

Utena is less focused on what Anthy actually said and more focused on the part where she nearly slipped about her age. Anthy knew this before she opened her mouth. Can’t get a damn thing past this girl, so she decides to distract her for the moment.

“Do you know where you are?” Anthy asks, stepping into the room.

Utena winces and rubs the back of her neck.

“The linen closet?”

“No.”

“Your witchy-magic room that I’m not allowed to be in?”

“I never said that. This is a purification room. If I don’t purge these things of what happened at that place, it will continue to live on like Nemuro Hall.”

“Like where now?”

“Here.” Anthy hands Utena the glasses, and neatly folds the cloth so it can rest in the cup of her hand. “Try them on.”

“Are you sure, Himemiya?”

Anthy shrugs.

“Sometimes a pair of glasses is just a pair of glasses.” Not true.

“Yeah, but what was all that about purification? Is this dangerous?” Utena makes a face and leans back as if she can get as much distance between herself and the glasses as possible without going so far as to cut off her hands.

“No more dangerous than Cantarella.”

“Yeah, one can always build up a tolerance, huh, Himemiya?”

“Yes.”

Utena looks at Anthy. Anthy looks at Utena.

“Thanks for the glasses, Himemiya.”

“Mm.”

With that, Anthy walks off.

Having nothing else to do, Utena turns off the light and leaves the room and shuts the door behind her.

Hm. What does one do with a pair of glasses, really? Besides trying them on, that is.

Even as she ponders this, Utena heads to the bathroom and puts them on while looking in the mirror. Blech, these don’t fit her face at all. They probably fit no one’s face except Anthy’s.

Utena moves to take them off, them freezes as something about them...changes.

They’re foggy in places, and no amount of breathing on them and rubbing the moisture away with her jersey will get rid of them. The smudges are separate, and Utena can sort of tell that they’re not smudges but like something else, actual things that she could see if she just squinted a little harder, but even that doesn’t help unravel what they are until she looks in the mirror at herself again and one little text box blips into existence on her lenses.

Tenjou Utena: Level 20

Oh, cool! Utena knew her way around video games for sure. Her obsession started when she was in the hospital. RPG battles weren’t quite as cathartic as real sword fights, but she’d take them if it mean she wasn’t doing them for that person any more. Also it was nice to work through her prince obsession with high fantasy stories instead of real-life people.

All that is to say that Utena pretty thoroughly understood the concept of leveling up.

Wait.

Why did she have a level?

“Himemiya!”

“Yes?”

“Why are the glasses telling me what level I am?’

“Pardon?”

Nevermind. Utena’s not really in the mood to explain how video games work today. It’s just some levels any way, what’s the harm in knowing hers or anyone elses? Anthy was the only one who could do magic and she didn’t seem to be too keen on using these again so…

“Himemiya!”

“Yes?”

“I’m going for a walk!”

 

Touga and Saionji are practicing their kendo in the little park between Anthy’s cottage and the campus, shirtless of course. Utena wonders whose idea that was, but she’s not complaining: they make the perfect test subjects.

Utena slips on the glasses and makes like she’s honored to watch them go at it, just like the girls back at Ohtori used to. (This is more for her sake, if she starts talking shit, then Saionji will talk back then Touga will join and then she has to have a conversation with both of them and she’s really not feeling it today.)

In a few moments, two text boxes pop up over their heads.

Saionji Kyouichi: Level 40

Kiryuu Touga: Level 35

Whoa, Saionji’s high level than Touga? Actually that makes sense. Saionji was the captain of the kendo team and he was engaged to the Rose Bride when Utena first came to Ohtori. But why were they both higher level than her when she beat them multiple times?

Well, she was off her feet for a few years, recovering from a vicious swording, so there’s that.

“Utena-chan!”

The full weight of the force of nature known as Wakaba Shinohara hops onto her back.

“Hey, Wakaba.” Utena quickly checks to make sure the glasses don’t slip off her face.

“I didn’t know you had classes today.”

“I don’t. I’m just going on a walk.”

“Oh. I was gonna ask you for a ride.”

Wakaba climbs off her back with a little pout and Utena barely gets to turn around before there’s a text box pinging up.

Shinohara Wakaba: Level 19

Why did she...Wakaba wasn’t a duelist, and she didn’t do sports either so why--

“Is something wrong, Utena?”

“No, sorry. Just a little distracted--”

“Did you and Anthy fight again?” Wakaba starts rolling up sleeve. “I’ll give her a piece of my mind--”

“Actually, don’t do that, but I appreciate you defending my honor.” Maybe that’s why Wakaba was level 19?

Wakaba sizes her up warily. “If you say so. I didn’t know you wore glasses.”

“Oh, these are Anthy’s old ones. I’m just trying them on.”

“You look so handsome! Can I try?”

Utena bites her lip. When the two of them reconnected they promised to be honest with each from then on but…

“Sorry, Wakaba. Anthy would be really mad if I didn’t get her permission first.”

“Then I’ll just have to butter her up.” Wakaba winks, then glances down at her watch. “I’m late! I’ll call you later, Utena-chan!”

She leaves like a whirlwind.

 

Utena makes her way to the shopping district where there are more people, but not so many from Ohtori. Normal people who graduated from normal high schools, which was most of them, didn’t have any levels at all, save for the seedy fortune teller in the alley, who was at a piddly 2 levels. Well, fortune telling does count as magic in a way.

She passes Nanami (level 34) who turns up her nose at her even though they technically have an alliance (“We girls need to protect each other, you know?!”), distantly followed by Mitsuru (level 11) who is weighed down by all of, presumably, her purchases.

Poor kid.

Miki (level 15) and Kozue (level 16) are sitting on the steps to the music room. Miki is playing a melody on his keyboard with a very determined look, at least he is until Kozue says something unheard and he turns red and splutters as she laughs.

She catches sight of Utena and nods once before sipping her coffee.

Juri (level 80--what the fuck?!) is in the campus green proper, sitting under a tree with her head in Shiori’s (level 8) lap. Utena has no idea how that managed to shake out, even in her sleep Juri has a begrudged expression, and Shiori has an expression that’s both predatory and gleeful as she takes pictures on her phone.

Huh.

Curiosity satisfied, although not really, Utena heads home, deliberately ignoring the feeling in her gut telling her to stay on campus just a little while longer.

 

“Anthy, I’m back!”

Utena hangs the glasses on her jersey as she kicks off her shoes in the entryway. She can hear Anthy giggling, probably at Chu-Chu’s antics, and heads into the living room to see what’s going on.

There’s a suit of red and black armor sitting unassembled on the floor. Anthy’s kneeling down in front of it, obviously she was polishing it just a moment before Chu-Chu got stuck under the helmet and started stumbling around. And that’s nice and all, but, like--

“Why though?”

“Hmm?” 

Anthy looks up at her. Utena gestures towards the armor.

“Oh! I ought to polish up yours as well!” she says as if that explains anything.

She gets to her feet and dusts off her skirt, then speed walks out of the room.

“Himemiya…”

Utena glances over her shoulder having clearly not learned her lesson from earlier today, and crouches in front of the armor as she slips on the glasses.

Nothing--

“Oof!”

Utena nearly falls forward and bangs her nose on the armor, but she manages to catch herself just in time. She glances over her shoulder at Chu-Chu, who’s still stuck in the helmet.

She makes a noise between a sigh and laugh as she turns around to help the monkey.

“I can’t be mad at you, you’re too cute…?”

The helmet falls from Utena’s hands and back on top of Chu-Chu, obscuring him from her view, but she saw enough.

For a moment the glasses took on a sinister white sheen, presumably from the sheer volume of blurred-out text boxes filling the lenses, but Utena didn’t need all of those to get the point.

Why was Chu-Chu level 500?

“Utena? Are you alright?”

Utena makes the mistake of turning to look at Anthy with the glasses still on.

“Ah.”

“Mm.”

Utena looks at Anthy. Anthy looks at Utena. Utena looks at Anthy.

Utena slowly removes the glasses and folds them up neatly.

“Can I trade these in for the stopwatch?” she says after a long while.

“Stop going in the linen closet, Utena.”

**Author's Note:**

> I did specifically choose everyone's levels based on who they were with so like go nuts.
> 
> Hit me up on tumblr @ chthonic--fantasy


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